


Fake It and Make It

by Rachel_Lu



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shops, Dating, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Implied Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Pining, Resolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 20:51:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel_Lu/pseuds/Rachel_Lu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Smith asks a woman at a coffee shop to pretend to date him to get rid of an ex.  He gets a little more involved than he intended...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fake It and Make It

“I need you to date me.”

Rose Tyler looked up from her novel, a blatantly surprised look on her face. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

The man who stood next to her table shifted from side to side, looking very uncomfortable indeed. He was tall, and fit, Rose had to admit. He carded a hand through his unruly hair, looking uncertain. “No, no I can’t say you do, but see-“ he jerked his head towards a woman sitting in a corner of the coffee shop. “That’s my ex-girlfriend. And she’s the kind of person who… Has trouble accepting no. I need your help.”

“What, so you just want to sit here?” 

“And hold your hand, if that’s not too much to ask.”

Rose fought down a grin. “Alright, if that’s all. Have a seat.” She gestured to the seat across from her and with a strong whoosh of a sigh leaving him, he slid into it. She held her hand out expectantly, and he reached out and took hers with one of his. She ignored the spark of electricity that shot up her forearm. 

“John!” A female voice called from across the shop. 

John, who was apparently with her, winced at the word. His eyes snapped up to hers. “Quick, what’s your name?” He asked, his hand tightening around hers. 

“Rose Tyler,” she said in a rushed voice as the woman approached. “And you’re John.”

He nodded violently. “John Smith.”

Rose looked up as the brunette woman stood before them. “Hey, John,” she said, her voice clearly flirty. 

“Hello, Becca,” John forced a smile that Rose didn’t miss. 

“How’ve you been?” 

“Oh, fantastic, brilliant, really. This is my girlfriend, Rose Tyler.”

Becca’s smile immediately dropped right off her face. “Oh. Nice to meet you, Rose.”

Rose made a show of adjusting a possessive grip on John’s hand. “Yeah, nice to meet you too,” she smiled. 

The woman seemed to be uncomfortable and nodded slowly before going to sit back in her seat. John let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you.”

She squeezed his hand in hers, thinking that this was the end of it, that he’d get up and go home without another word or thought about her. “Anytime.”

“Listen, there’s a party this weekend, and Becca’s invited, and I-well… I really can’t show up alone, she’ll think I’m available. Could I interest you in going with me as my fake date?”

Rose grinned. “Yeah, sure,” she said. She pulled out her mobile with her free hand and passed it over to John. “Type your number in there, start texting me so I know that you’re not a total creep.”

John let out a bark of a laugh and took the phone from her, typing in his number and sliding it back to her. He leaned his chin on his free hand and gazed at her for a moment. “This means you’re going to have to call first.”

Rose’s lip twitched in response. “I think I’ll survive.” 

He grinned back at her. “Excellent! Miss Tyler, I look forward to it.” His smile fell and a look of panic crossed his face. “You are a Miss, aren’t you?”

Rose laughed and nodded. “Yes, I’m completely available for your fake-dating purposes without the worry of a jealous significant other.”

John nodded in relief. “Sounds excellent. I’ll be going, I have to go to work. Call me tonight and I’ll set up all the details for that party with you.”

“Alright.”

He lowered his voice, “Could I kiss you, on the cheek. I can feel Becca’s eyes boring into my back.”

Rose smiled slowly. “Yeah.”

He leaned across the table and nearly missed her cheek entirely, landing the kiss on the corner of her mouth instead. He pulled away and smiled before giving her hand a final squeeze and exiting through the front door.

She smiled as he left and flipped open her book again, picking up where she left off. She heard the footsteps of John’s angry ex-girlfriend approaching and looked up, putting an indifferent look on her face. “Hello, again.”

“Don’t be coy with me,” Becca slid into the seat that John had just vacated. “You’re flaunting him.”

She took a bite out of her scone, not breaking eye contact with him. “Well, he is quite a catch,” she said casually. “But I wouldn’t say I was flaunting him.”

“You had your hands all over him.”

“Just the one, actually.”

“Listen, he wants me back, Rose, just you wait. There’s a party this weekend, he’ll be picking up with me back then.”

“Oh, yes! I’m going to that party as well.”

Becca’s eyes widened. “How did you get invited?” 

“John.”

Becca said a curt and angry goodbye and flounced out of the shop, leaving Rose trying not to laugh. She had to refrain from calling John right then and there to tell him about it. 

She didn’t wait long. She called him that night, around nine. She tapped her fingers on her knees as the phone rang, unreasonably nervous. When he picked up on the third ring, she nearly fainted with relief. 

“Hello, Rose!” A voice on the other end said cheerfully.

“How’d you know it was me?” Rose asked, furrowing her brows as though he could see her. 

“Well, I didn’t expect any other strange number to call me tonight, that’s for sure,” he chuckled. “The party, then? Shall we discuss?” 

“Oh, yeah, but hang on, I’ve got a story for you,” she could barely tell the story of Becca’s anger about the party without laughing. 

John seemed to share her opinion of the matter. “It’s going to be golden, Rose Tyler, just you wait!” 

He gave her the details of the party and she wrote them down, and they promised to call each other every day until then so they could get used to each other. They stayed on the phone after that, talking about nothing and everything, until Rose looked over at the clock and noticed that it was midnight. 

“John, it’s midnight,” she said eloquently.

A pause. “Ah, so it is. Well, I shall bid thee good night, fair Rose Tyler. We’ll speak tomorrow night, around the same time?”

“Sounds fantastic.”

“Brilliant!” 

They said goodnight and she hung up and Rose felt an odd sort of happy feeling in her stomach as she went to bed.

She wrote it off as indigestion.

They spoke the next night, and the night after that, and the night after that. Rose found herself talking to him about things she’d never wanted to talk about, and John found himself talking to Rose about things he didn’t really want to talk about. They grew closer and their phone calls grew longer until they were staying up until four am to chat. 

The night of the party was the only night that Rose felt well rested, having slept all afternoon to make up with her late night chat with John the night before. She donned a short, tight blue dress and silver strappy sandals. Her hair was curled lightly and she found a diamond drop necklace in the back of her jewelry box.

He came to pick her up (they had to arrive in the same car after all) and she waited by the door, telling herself she was being stupid. This was a fake date, for God’s sake, he wasn’t going to actually up and marry her because he was taking her to this dumb party. She shook herself and tried to shake her growing feelings for this man with it. 

He pulled up just a bit late, she supposed they wanted to be fashionably late, and she opened the door and walked to the car. He shot out of his car and whipped around the front to open the door for her. “You look lovely,” he said quietly just before she sat down.

She grinned and blushed. “Thanks,” she said, and got into the car. He shut the door behind her and got back into his own seat.

“Okay,” he said, drawing out the word, “Here’s the story. We met at Henrik’s, since that’s where you work, it makes sense, and since then we’ve just fallen madly in love.”

Rose tried to ignore how close to the truth that had been for her. “Alright. Where was our first date then?”

“Uh, maybe we had chips?” John replied, lifting a shoulder as he pulled away from her street. “We both seem to enjoy them quite a bit.”

“Chips,” Rose nodded.

“Our first kiss,” John said slowly, almost as if he was afraid to address it, “Was just two months ago outside the very same chip shop.”

“Very easy to remember,” Rose agreed, laughing a little. “You’re very clever.”

“Yes, I am.”

They fell into an easy conversation as they drove to the party, which was, Rose was terribly nervous to admit, a house party. He opened the door for her when they got there and he grabbed her hand and tugged her up against his side.

“You look great,” Rose said, eyeing up John’s brown pinstriped suit. “I like the converse.”

“Oh, so do I,” he grinned at her, “I really did forget that people wore dress shoes, they’re truly dreadful.”

“Truly!” Rose beamed. 

She almost had to physically shake herself from the jolt of electricity that went through her at the smile that he was sending her way. This was having no effect on him, she knew that, this was all fake to him, and it hurt her that it wasn’t fake to her. She was seeing him as a friend, and then, very slowly, as more than a friend. It was a very odd feeling. 

Almost the second they got into the party, Becca walked right up to them. “John, I think we need to talk,” she blurted out, then bit her lip as though she really hadn’t meant to say it out loud. 

John furrowed his brows at her. “You know, I think it’s very established what we are, Becca.” He swung Rose’s hand in his, “I’m sort of attached to somebody else now.”

“We’re something special, John,” she said quietly, “Did you forget? That whole year of our lives, John, us, together, always together. And you throw it away on-“

“On a brilliant woman who doesn’t call me horrible things behind my back, or cheats on me,” John finished for her. “And that’s just what she is, Becca, she’s brilliant, completely brilliant. Now, if you’ll excuse us.”

He pulled Rose away from Becca and into the large living room that had been cleared of all furniture. The music was loud and the crowd was already wild, and John turned to her, a silent question in his eyes. 

She nodded in response, knowing very clearly what he was asking. She moved to wind her arms around his neck and his hands found her hips, pulling her closer to him.

“Sorry about that,” he said, laughing humorlessly. “I didn’t know she’d come head-on like that.”

“Well, you know, she did,” Rose lifted a shoulder, “And I did sign up for it, if you recall.”

John nodded and looked away from her, swallowing hard. “Yeah, that’s right, you did.”

She tried to search his eyes, but something blocked in his eyes, and he turned back to her with a big smile on his face. “I really do hope you’ll enjoy tonight, even though Becca’s a complete trainwreck.”

She allowed her fingers to drift into the hair at the nape of his neck. “I’m already having a good time,” she said lightly.

They moved to the beat then, holding each other close, and both believed that the other was very much faking it. His arms wound fully around her waist and her arms locked around his neck as they danced, moving to a rhythm that turned into something all their own. 

His hands started to wander, she told herself it was just because Becca was watching. 

Her lips ghosted his ear, he told himself it was just an accident she would apologize for later. 

As the song ended, they separated, both panting and sweaty, and John’s gaze flicked to her lips and back up to her eyes. “I-Rose, I didn’t, all of this, I can’t-“ he snapped his jaw shut.

Rose leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth, shrinking away when he froze slightly. Her cheeks burned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean.”

He cut her off by pulling her waist until his mouth was firmly on hers. Her arms clenched around his neck, holding him as close as she could. One of his hands crept up her back and tangled in her hair, and for a moment she forgot they were very much in public. 

“Oh, right,” he said as they broke apart. “To the car?”

She nodded fervently. “To the car, to the car.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her form the dance floor and all the way to the car. They pulled down the street at top speed, him driving with one hand and the other one gripping hers violently. 

“John, where are we going?” Rose asked breathlessly, trying to recover from his kiss.

“Home,” he replied hoarsely. “Mine, to be precise, is that alright?” 

“As long as you get us there quickly I don’t care,” Rose said, shifting in her seat. 

He was practically panting next to her, and he got them to his flat in record time. He pulled her up the stair and slammed her back against the door, closing it. “Rose,” he breathed harshly. 

She licked her lips and her gaze darted down to his mouth. “Kiss me,” she inhaled shakily. “Please.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” he growled, actually growled at her, and lunged down to take her mouth again. He pressed her up against the door, hard, and kissed her, long and urgent, as though he had to keep at her for as long as possible.

Rose scratched her nails down his suit jacket, not sure if he could feel it or not until he groaned into her mouth. 

He pulled back suddenly. “I’m sorry, Rose, I know this was supposed to be a fake date thing, but I just kept talking to you, and I couldn’t stay away, you’re,” he leaned forwards and groaned into her neck. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted.” 

She clutched at his head, keeping him where he was as he kissed her neck in large gulps, moving up to bite her pulse point. 

“God, don’t be sorry,” Rose breathed, moving her hands to shove at his jacket. He shook it off without removing his mouth from her, returning his hands to her waist right after the material hit the ground. 

He moved and cupped her cheeks with his hands. “Is it too early to be in love with you?”

Rose smiled, “If that’s the case, then we are both fashionably early,” she laughed breathlessly, “You and me, yeah?” 

He reached around her shoulder and locked the front door before turning his darkened gaze to her. “You and me.”

*************************  
She lay in his arms later, her fingers tracing patters over his chest. “I thought you still thought this all was fake,” she whispered. “And I was the only one falling in love with you.”

“Oh, no,” John laughed, the low sound rumbling through her cheek pleasantly. “I picked you in that coffee shop, Rose, I wanted to get to know you. Revenge on Becca was just, well, a bonus. I thought you were faking.”

“Well, good thing neither of us were faking.”

Rose giggled. 

“Mind out of the gutter, Rose Tyler.”

She cuddled closer to him in response.

“Rose?” He asked quietly, and waited for her hum of response. “Do you think you’d like to made us, you and me, an exclusive thing?”

“Yeah,” Rose said quietly, trying to reign in her incredible excitement. “I think that’d be just great.”

“Don’t know what I would’ve done if you’d said no,” John admitted. He paused for a moment and then clutched her tighter. “Will you stay tonight?” 

Rose smiled and bit her lip. “Yeah.”

She’d stay all the tonights if she could.


End file.
